Dear Yogis,

Continued from yesterday's message...

Ninth: Positive vibration

Whether it’s a coffee break in office, debate over
email chain or gossip, most people tend to talk about
negative about people, system, culture and so on.  If
we can change anybody or any system for better then
it’s excellent otherwise pointing the evil doesn’t
help anybody and this attitude is extremely dangerous.
  A yogi should not spread any negative vibration.

It is possible that a yogi is discussing something
with someone and while the yogi is talking positive
and the other person is talking negative; even in such
circumstance the yogi should try to end the
conversation as soon as he/ she finds that the
conversation is going into ego issue to prove one’s
point.  Thus, a yogi can stop negative vibration
creation where he/ she is present.

Tenth: Truthfulness

‘Ashankah’ means fearless and a liar cannot be a
fearless person.  Lying by itself is a symbol of
scare.  For if a person is not scared of anything why
should he lie? ‘Will Power’ is very important and
there are certain things that increase or decrease our
will power.  Lying certainly reduces our will power
significantly.

On the contrary truthfulness is divine.  It’s a belief
that a person who abstains from lying for a
significant period of time such as a decade or so
attains a power by which whatever he speaks turns out
to be true.  Like if such a person tells a dying
person that the latter will live a long life then the
dying man recovers and lives long.  That’s the power
of always speaking ‘The Truth’.

It is very important for a yogi to attain this power
of truthfulness.  No lying, openly or secretly, is
healthy for a yogi.  Remember, Yudhisthir or
Mahabharata had lied just once in his life that too in
a twisted way and also to support the righteousness
(dharma) but still had to pay on his way to heaven for
that single lie.

Eleventh: Non-attachment

Non-attachment especially to material things is a very
important quality of a yogi and that needs to be
strictly followed.  It is also important for a yogi to
have very little attachment to relationship.  A yogi
should also be very clear that one could have immense
love and reverence to someone even without being
attached to the person.

By practice of nonattachment the yogi dissolves all
the inclinations and desires of his/ her heart and
remains in continuous ecstasy with the Aum vibration,
the expression of God in creation.

Twelfth: Reforming others

A yogi is a reformed person who has succeeded in all
the eleven steps mentioned above or is striving very
hard to succeed.  Having realized the bliss of living
a yogic life it is his/ her duty to show this path to
other aspirants.  Thus, reforming others is another
quality a yogi should possess.


-x-x-x-

These are some simple steps that a yogi should follow
to live a Self-realized life.  Unlike any other
course, which has a specific syllabus and duration
followed by exams and certification, one would agree
that Self-realization is not a fixed duration course,
etc.  It started the moment we got our first human
life and will end when we return back to the Spirit
(final liberation).  And while in this body with mind,
intellect and ego we need to live this life acquiring
the limitless knowledge of wisdom and following the
steps mentioned above.  This will give us eternal
peace of mind.

Ashankah.

Ashankah yogis' Self-realization Satsang
(Atharva-Yajur-Sama-Rig vedas'-Scriptures)





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Dear Yogis,

Continued from yesterday's message...

Fourth:  Fault finding

If anything happens, people in general will find
someone to be blamed for that.  Finding faults with
others is very common.

Instead of finding faults in others a yogi finds owns
faults and correct them.  A yogi should not blame
anyone rather learn from every mistake and take one
more step towards perfection.

Fifth: Equality

In the beginning of creation there were no religions,
races, nationality, hierarchy, etc.  For a yogi these
do not exist even today.  A true yogi is one who can’t
even imagine any difference between two children of
God in terms of distinctions such as those just
mentioned.  There do exist some bad elements in the
society but a yogi will identify them only as
individuals and not as representative of any religion
or race.  Hate the sin and not the sinner should
always be a yogi’s teaching to bring peace to all.

Sixth: AUM

‘Om’ or ‘Aum’ is the shortest holy mantra.  One
elaboration of AUM is Acharan (behaviour), Uccharan
(pronunciation) and Manan (thinking).  It is said only
a person whose all actions are good, whose words do
not heart others and who thinks only good about all
can chant the ‘AUM’ mantra with meaning.  A yogi has a
very good acharan, uccharan and Manan.

Let all our actions be good for everyone.  May we
always talk good and may we always think good of
others.

Seventh: Meditation

It is very important for a yogi to spend a little time
in the morning and at night in ‘Silence’.  This little
time can be from 5 minutes to 45 minutes session or
more each.  Ashankah yogis will discuss a lot on
meditation and umpteen books are available on the
subject.  One excellent book in entitled ‘Inviting
Silence’ by Gunilla Norris (ISBN – 0-974-24050-8).
Needless to mention that there is no dearth of Asian
authors who have written excellent books on
Meditations, its methods and techniques.

Eighth: Spiritual recreation

Various spiritual groups conduct ‘Spiritual retreats’
over the weekends or for longer period.  Attending
such retreats benefit a lot.  People spend excellent
time together throughout the retreat like meditating,
lunching, dining, praying, studying, chanting, etc.
together.  Like-minded people come together and share
a lot about their spiritual life.

The major difference between a spiritual retreat and
any other picnic or outing is that the former focus
more on the importance of maintaining silence,
spreading positive thoughts, discipline of timing and
sharing of spiritual wisdom.

It’s indeed a good idea to be a subscribed member of
at least one spiritual magazine.  Such magazines give
review of good books, movies, etc. and also advertise
the forthcoming spiritual retreats by various
organizations.

To be continued...

Ashankah.
(AYSRS)




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Dear Yogis,

What are Ashankah yogis?

Anybody who follows or strives to learn the following
way of living is an Ashankah yogi:

First:  Overcome your three enemies (the 3 E’s – Ego,
Expectation and Excitement)

Second: Avoid waiting and worrying (the 2 W’s)

Third:  Acquiring Self-realization knowledge (Guru,
Scriptures, Satsang)

Fourth:  Fault finding

Fifth: Equality

Sixth: AUM

Seventh: Meditation

Eighth: Spiritual recreation

Ninth: Positive vibration

Tenth: Truthfulness

Eleventh: Non-attachment

Twelfth: Reforming others

Explanation:-

First:  Overcome your three enemies (the 3 E’s – Ego,
Expectation and Excitement)

Volumes can be written on each of the three enemies,
which each individual has to overcome.  However, in
simple words it would be something like this-
Our Ego is our first and foremost enemy and we should
never allow it to talk or do anything for us.
We keep high expectation from others and when that’s
not met, we suffer.  We should try to keep the
expectation level at its minimum.
Equanimity is the state where a person feels the same
way in pleasure and pain.  Yogis should attain that
state for which he/ she has to avoid getting excited.

Second: Avoid waiting and worrying (the 2 W’s)

Ordinary people cannot stop ‘Time’.  We simply wait
for things to happen or not happen and we worry about
things.  We need to do our part of action and then
forget it until again it’s our time to take further
action on it.  Between our two actions, we usually
wait and/ or worry.  A yogi should give up these.

Third:  Acquiring Self-realization knowledge (Guru,
Scriptures, Satsang)

A yogi undergoes a Self-realization study, with or
without a guru.  He acquires the knowledge about the
‘Self’ from any or all the following three
sources-Guru, Scriptures and Satsang.  Tremendous
knowledge is sitting in scriptures of any religion;
Bible, Gita, Koran, Tora, Guru Granth Sahib, etc. and
of course the four Vedas (including Upanisads),
Gospels of Avatars and other great saints, etc.  By
regular reading, contemplating and discussing with the
like-minded people it becomes extremely easy for
anyone to know one’s true nature (Spirit or Pure
Consciousness).

To be continued in Part 2 and Part 3

Ashankah.



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Hello,

The moderator of the Ashanka_Yogis_Self-Realization_Satsang group has changed
the group's name.
This means that both the group's email address and the group home page
location have changed.

The group email address:
Ashankah_Yogis_Self-Realization_Satsang@yahoogroups.com

The group home page location:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ashankah_Yogis_Self-Realization_Satsang

If you have links which point to this group or an address book entry
for the group, you should update them, as the old addresses will no
longer work.

Regards,

Yahoo! Groups Customer Care

Dear Yogis,

Recently you received some junk emails (Auto reply
sort of emails).  I’m very sorry about that.  Care has
been taken to ensure that we don’t get any such emails
from that particular email id.  Single email for ‘Out
of office’ auto replies are welcome to this e-group
but not business type of email confirmations, etc.

I fully understand how irritating it is to receive
junk mails in our inbox.  As the moderator of this
e-group, I will try my level best to keep mails
strictly related to Self-realization messages.

Regards,
Moderator
AYSRS




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Dear Ashanka_Yogis_Self-Realization_Satsang@yahoogroups.com,

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We received your message on 12/24/2004.
Your tracking number for this message is : T20041225000P

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Dear Ashanka_Yogis_Self-Realization_Satsang@yahoogroups.com,

Thanks for writing to Webshots!

We received your message on 12/24/2004.
Your tracking number for this message is : T20041225000N

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Dear yogis,

The Sanskrit meaning of ‘Ashankah’ is fearless.  The
idea behind naming this Self-realization group as
‘Ashankah yogis’ is just to remind everyone to live
like a fearless yogi.  Quite a few emails are already
posted and more will be posted clarifying the term
‘yogi’ to remove the misconception that a yogi is a
monk, etc.  While a monk is a yogi by outer and inner
renunciations any other person can be a yogi by inner
renunciation alone, which is the goal of Ashankah
yogis.

‘Fear’ is the only cause of our unhappiness.  A rich
person is afraid of losing wealth, a beautiful person
is afraid of losing beauty, a successful person is
afraid of losing status, a celebrity is afraid of its
competitors and so on.  Even an ordinary person is
afraid of losing reputation.  Each one is so cautious
of retaining one’s name and fame.  The reason behind
all these is just one’s ego.  If one can overcome
one’s this enemy called ego then one will become
fearless, which is what all Ashankah yogis should
strive for.

How can one overcome one’s ego?

Ego arises from comparison.  As soon as we compare
ourselves with anyone and find ourselves superior, ego
of superiority arises.  But, if we go into the roots
to find out who we really are then we will realize
that we are all equal manifestation of one Spirit.  At
the most we are all at different levels of
consciousness.  Our essence is same.  The Spirit (we
may call it God), which existed before time and space
and will continue to be there even after the world
dissolves, is like an ocean.  All its manifestations
(creation) are like waves in the ocean.  But as we
know, ocean or waves, both are just water; similarly
God and non-God both are pure consciousness.
Difference between two people is the difference
between two waves.  At the most one wave may be bigger
than the other or one may be more violent than the
other.  But when both waves cool down they are the
same, water and nothing else.

It may take lot of reading of our scriptures and lot
of pondering over them but one day each of us is bound
to know that we are all birth less, death less pure
consciousness and there is no room for ego.

I suggest reading Vasistha’s yoga.  Vasistha’s yoga is
the conversation between Lord Rama and Sage Vasistha.
The sage enlightens Rama by replying to all the doubts
of the Lord, the secret of creation, etc.  One reading
of this beautiful book can clarify thousands of doubts
a spiritual aspirant has in his/ her mind.

In India this should be easily available in any
bookshop especially those attached to any spiritual
mission or math.  In the U.S. this could be ordered
from ‘Vedanta press’ and their toll free number is
1-800-816-2242.

However, it will be my constant interest to keep
posting important messages from the reading of such
Vedanta books that should help Ashankah yogis to live
an uninterrupted Self-realized life.

Wish you all a merry Christmas.
Om,
Ashankah.

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Dear Ashwani Yogi,

Officially there are no Ashanakah Yogis' centers
anywhere as of today.  All Ashankah yogis are
requested, if possible, to gather some interested
people and hold satsangs at somebody's home at least
once a week.

Scriptures say that neither of charity, pilgrimage,
austarity or rituals can give one God-realization;
only wisdom can.  Further it says that there are three
ways of attaining wisdom - knowledge from a guru,
scriptures and satsang.

So, if circumstances allow then arrange to have
satsang at your place or anybody else's place who
would be interested in Self-realization.

Om,
Ashankah.

--- Ashwani malhotra <ashuml@...> wrote:

>
> hi there! do you have any centre in
> vancouver,canada.thnx for your time.ash
>




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Dear Ashanka_Yogis_Self-Realization_Satsang@yahoogroups.com,

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We received your message on 12/23/2004.
Your tracking number for this message is : T20041224002Y

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hi there! do you have any centre in vancouver,canada.thnx for your time.ash

>From: Ashankah <narenpm@...>
>Reply-To: Ashanka_Yogis_Self-Realization_Satsang@yahoogroups.com
>To: Ashankayogis SRSatsang
><Ashanka_Yogis_Self-Realization_Satsang@yahoogroups.com>
>Subject: [Ashanka_Yogis_Self-Realization_Satsang] Good action, Bad action
>and Inaction
>Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 13:02:45 -0800 (PST)
>
>
>Dear Yogis,
>
>Scriptures say that each of us is an individual soul
>cut off from the Spirit, going through cycles of
>births and deaths with the ultimate goal of returning
>back to the Spirit one day.  The returning back to the
>Spirit is attained by final liberation.
>
>The cycle of births and deaths continue due to our
>desires and karmas.  As long as we generate good or
>bad karmas, there cannot be an end to our cycles.  The
>only way out of this trap is stopping karma-producing
>actions.  Which means we need to stop all our good and
>bad actions and only indulge in ‘Inaction’.  What’s
>Inaction?
>
>Right or good action – When the action performed tends
>to arouse soul consciousness it may be called proper
>action.  All activities that lead the mind of the doer
>away from sense enslavement to soul enjoyment are
>proper actions.
>
>Wrong or bad action – Any action harmful to body,
>mind, or soul is bad or wrong action, and is to be
>avoided.  The sensual man overindulges in using the
>senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch until
>he finds that all these mediums of happiness give him
>nothing but satiety and discomfort.
>
>Inaction – True inaction occurs when the devotee has
>freed himself from all karma-producing actions, evil
>or good.  He is then through with all compulsory forms
>of actions he has reached the state of inaction (that
>is complete freedom from the necessary of and desire
>for action) that is characteristic of God.  The
>liberated yogi bubbles with ceaseless inner merriment
>whether he is sitting still or actively busy.
>Performing actions with only the desire to please God
>is thus considered “inaction,” or nonbinding action.
>After attaining this state of inaction the way is open
>to the devotee’s liberation.
>
>[Extract from Paramahansa Yogananda’s translation of
>Bhagavad Gita].
>
>Om,
>Ashankah.
>
>
>
>
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>
>Yahoo! Groups Links
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>
>
>
>
>
>

Dear Yogis,

Scriptures say that each of us is an individual soul
cut off from the Spirit, going through cycles of
births and deaths with the ultimate goal of returning
back to the Spirit one day.  The returning back to the
Spirit is attained by final liberation.

The cycle of births and deaths continue due to our
desires and karmas.  As long as we generate good or
bad karmas, there cannot be an end to our cycles.  The
only way out of this trap is stopping karma-producing
actions.  Which means we need to stop all our good and
bad actions and only indulge in ‘Inaction’.  What’s
Inaction?

Right or good action – When the action performed tends
to arouse soul consciousness it may be called proper
action.  All activities that lead the mind of the doer
away from sense enslavement to soul enjoyment are
proper actions.

Wrong or bad action – Any action harmful to body,
mind, or soul is bad or wrong action, and is to be
avoided.  The sensual man overindulges in using the
senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch until
he finds that all these mediums of happiness give him
nothing but satiety and discomfort.

Inaction – True inaction occurs when the devotee has
freed himself from all karma-producing actions, evil
or good.  He is then through with all compulsory forms
of actions he has reached the state of inaction (that
is complete freedom from the necessary of and desire
for action) that is characteristic of God.  The
liberated yogi bubbles with ceaseless inner merriment
whether he is sitting still or actively busy.
Performing actions with only the desire to please God
is thus considered “inaction,” or nonbinding action.
After attaining this state of inaction the way is open
to the devotee’s liberation.

[Extract from Paramahansa Yogananda’s translation of
Bhagavad Gita].

Om,
Ashankah.




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Dear Yogis,

Within every person there is a spiritual power mostly
lying dormant as a coiled serpent, which is called
Kundalini.  The rousing of the Kundalini is the one
and only way to attaining Divine Wisdom, super
conscious perception; realization of the Spirit
(God-realization).

The rousing may come in various ways, through love for
God, through the mercy of perfected sages, or through
the power of the analytic will of philosopher.
Wherever there was any manifestation of what is
ordinarily called supernatural power or wisdom, there
a little current of Kundalini must have found its way
into the Sushumna (highest spiritual center located at
the crown of our head).  Only, in the vast majority of
such cases, people had ignorantly stumbled on some
practice, which set free a minute portion of the
coiled-up Kundalini.  All worship, consciously or
unconsciously, leads to this end.

The man who thinks that he is receiving response to
his prayers does not know that the fulfillment comes
from his own nature, that he has succeeded by the
mental attitude of prayer in waking up a bit of this
infinite power, which is coiled up within himself.

What, thus, men ignorantly worship under various
names, through fear and tribulation, the yogi declares
to the world to be the real power coiled up in every
being, the mother of eternal happiness, if we but know
how to approach her.

Raja Yoga is the science of religion, the rationale of
all worship, all prayers, forms, ceremonies and
miracles.

[Extract from Swami Vivekananda’s ‘Raja Yoga’]

Om,
Ashankah.

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Dear Yogis,

By now you all must be convinced that a soul (atman)
after separating from the Spirit (parmatman) goes
through millions of births as plants, insets, animals,
birds and human beings before understanding the ‘self’
completely and then merging back into the Spirit.
Often a question arises in the minds of seekers
whether killing animals is justifiable or not and what
kind of karma incurs by such actions.  Though it’s not
very easy to understand this topic, here’s an extract
from Sri Paramahansa Yogananda’s ‘Autobiography of a
yogi’ that throws some light on the subject matter.

Once Sri Paramahansa Yogananda asked his guru, Sri
Yukteswar Giri “Guruji, should one offer himself a
sacrifice rather than kill a wild beast?”

The guru replied, “No, man’s body is precious.  It has
the highest evolutionary value because of unique brain
and spinal centers.  These enable the advanced devotee
fully to grasp and express the loftiest aspects of
divinity.  No lower form is so equipped.  It is true
that a man incurs the debt of a minor sin if he is
forced to kill an animal or any other living thing.
But the holy shastras teach that wanton loss of a
human body is a serious transgression against the
karmic law.”

Om,
Ashankah.




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Dear Yogis,

Scriptures talk about two types of people – Monks and
householders.  Invariably many people think that for
God-Realization one has to live a monk’s life and that
a householder, just by marrying and raising a family,
has lost all rights of walking the path of
God-Realization.  I wish to remove this misconception
from the minds of God-Realizing seekers.

Hope the following two extracts from the teachings of
Ramakrishna Parmahansa and Parmahansa Yogananda would
help us understand this –

If a householder is a genuine devotee he performs his
duties without attachment; he surrenders the fruit of
his work to God-his gain or loss, his pleasure or
pain-and day and night he prays for devotion and for
nothing else.  This is called motiveless work, the
performance of duty without attachment.  A sannyasi,
too must do all his work in that spirit of detachment;
but he has no worldly duties to attend to, like a
householder.

If a householder gives in charity in a spirit of
detachment, he is really doing good to himself and not
to others.  It is God alone that he serves-God, who
dwells in all beings; and when he serves God, he is
really doing good to himself and not to others.  If a
man thus serves God through all beings, not through
men alone but through animals and other living beings
as well; if he doesn’t seek name and fame, or heaven
after death; if he doesn’t seek any return from those
he serves; if he can carry on his work of service in
this spirit-then he performs truly selfless work, work
without attachment.  Through such selfless work he
does good to himself.  This is called Karma yoga.
This too is a way to realize God.

[Extract from ‘The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna’
translation by Swami Nikhilananda]

“The highest yogic attainments are not barred to the
family man.  Even in the world, the yogi who
faithfully discharges his responsibilities, without
personal motive or attachment, treads the sure path of
enlightenment”

[Extract from Parmahansa Yogananda’s “Autobiography of
a yogi”].

Friends, who have heard about Sri Shankaracharya’s
famous ‘Hasta-Amalaka Stotram’ would know that this
stotram is all about revealing the realization of God
to be as clear and tangible as a fruit in the palm of
one’s hand.

God-Realization is not as difficult as some people
have created hype about it.  An encouraging statement
to the seekers would be that God-Realization is simple
to those, who would earnestly attempt to achieve it.
Statistics reveal that the number of people who never
attempted God-Realization is millions of times of the
number of people who attempted it and failed.  Please
attempt it and know for yourself that it’s just
‘Hasta-Amalaka’.

Om.
Ashankah.


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Dear Yogis,

In my earlier message I talked about the five sheaths
(kosha) in which a soul is wrapped – annamaya kosha
(food sheath), pranamaya kosha (life sheath) manomaya
kosha (mind sheath), jnanamaya kosha (intellect
sheath) and anandamaya kosha (bliss sheath).

Anything that is not the supreme Spirit “Brahman” is
in its process to realization of higher consciousness
to ultimately merge back to the supreme Spirit.

Inert minerals are locked in all five sheaths.  With
the unfolding of the annamaya kosha or matter sheath,
pranamaya kosha or the life sheath is revealed, and
the resulting manifestation is the life in plants.
Thus, the souls transmigrate from non-living entities
to living entities of the lowest consciousness, the
plants. (Plants have life but do not have mind).

When pranamaya kosha is unfolded and manomaya kosha or
the mind sheath becomes manifested, the animal kingdom
is expressed. (Animals have perceptions and
consciousness, but no the intellect to discriminate
between right and wrong).

When manomaya kosha is unfolded, and jnanamaya kosha
or the discriminative sheath is revealed, we have the
manifestation of intellect, or man, with the ability
to think, reason, and guide his actions by
discrimination and free choice.

When man rightly uses this discriminative native
power, jnanamaya kosha is ultimately rolled back and
anandamaya kosha or the bliss sheath is revealed. This
is the state of the divine man, with just a thin veil
of individuality between himself and God.

Thus a yogi, understanding the deeper meanings of each
kosha, first realizes that life energy is the link
between matter and spirit. And at the end, unfolding
the bliss sheath in deeper meditation, the yogi merges
his soul in blissful oneness with God.

[The above is an extract from Sri Parmahansa
Yogananda’s “The Bhagavad Gita – Royal science of
God-Realization”]

Om,
Ashankah.




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Dear Yogis,

Each individual soul has 3 bodies, in other words each
of us human beings has 3 bodies.  They are our
physical body, astral body and causal body.

The interpenetration of man’s three bodies is
expressed in many ways through his threefold nature.
In the wakeful state on earth a human being is
conscious more or less of his three vehicles.  When he
is sensuously intent on tasting, smelling, touching,
listening or seeing he is working principally through
his physical body.  Visualizing or willing, he is
working mainly through his astral body.  His causal
being finds expression when man is thinking or diving
deep in introspection or meditation; the cosmical
thoughts of genius come to the man who habitually
contacts his causal body. In this sense an individual
may be classified broadly as ‘a material man’, ‘an
energetic man’, or ‘an intellectual man’.

A man identifies himself about sixteen hours daily
with his physical vehicle.  Then he sleeps; if he
dreams, he remains in his astral body, effortlessly
creating any object even as do the astral beings.  If
man’s sleep be deep and dreamless for several hours he
is able to transfer his consciousness, or sense of
I-ness, to the causal body; such sleep is revivifying.
  A dreamer is contacting his astral and not his causal
body; his sleep is not fully refreshing.

Life after death:
When a person dies his soul leaves the physical body
in the physical world (earth) and takes its astral
body along with it to the astral world.  It remains in
its astral body until it takes up another physical
body to return to the physical world.  Thus the soul
keeps transmigrating between physical and astral
worlds (both while living one life and between two
lives).  While dreaming in sleep a person visits the
astral world for a short time.  On the contrary after
death of a body, the same soul can rest in the astral
world for a little time or for several hundred years.

When a soul is finally liberated (end of the cycle of
births and deaths) it finally rests in the causal
world fully submerged into the supreme soul (Brahman).
  And while living on earth, the soul can visit the
causal world only temporarily, which happens in deep
sleep and deep meditation (Samadhi).

Human being is nothing but an individual soul (jiva)
covered with 5 sheaths – food sheath (annamaya kosha),
life sheath (pranamaya kosha), mind sheath (manamaya
kosha), intellect sheath (vijnana maya kosha) and
bliss sheath (anandamaya kosha). The first sheet
(food) forms the physical body of the soul.  The next
three (life, mind and intellect) form the astral body
of the soul.  And finally the last (bliss) forms the
causal body of the soul.

The departed souls (including ghosts) roam around in
their astral body in the astral world.  Since worlds
exist within world, all worlds including physical,
astral and causal worlds exist in the same place.  But
mostly beings of one world cannot see the beings in
the other worlds.  However, there are exceptions when
awakened living beings (of physical world) can see
beings of astral world or causal worlds (experience of
God vision, ghosts or departed loved ones in
planchette, etc.)

[Source - Parmahansa Yogananda's 'Autobiography of a
yogi', etc.]
Om,
Ashankah



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Dear yogis,

Self-realization has been defined in various ways in
different books.  One way of defining this process is,
“Self-realization is knowing one’s Self as the soul,
and that the soul is one with God.”

Now just imagine, is it such a difficult task to hear
the above definition of Self-realization from someone
or read it somewhere?  Or in other words will a person
become illumined just by coming to know the above
definition?

The changeless soul has nothing to realize and body
cannot realize.  Hence, many believe that everyone is
already a realized self and hence nobody needs to
undergo self-realization.  So what is expected to be
done in the process of self-realization?  The answer
to the question is that one should stop behaving like
an ordinary person and start behaving like a
self-realized person.

There is a big difference between ‘being someone’ and
‘behaving like someone’.  You must have heard parents
telling their misbehaving grown up children, “Behave
like a grown up child”.  Maturity or behavior of a
grown up person doesn’t automatically come with age.
People learn that, practice that.  Similarly, though
we are all self-realized people we need to still learn
how to behave like one.

Though everyone is a self-realized person, a yogi is
called a self-realized person and not everyone.  This
is because a yogi behaves like a self-realized person,
all people do not.  Let me explain this with a small
story.

There was a householder yogi whose wife was a living
incarnation of temper, even more petulant than the
spouse of poor Socrates. Nothing the yogi did ever
pleased or appeared right to his wife. Even the
neighbors complained frequently about her tempestuous
disposition. The yogi, in his natural goodness, and
being secure in his own inner calm, patiently left her
alone, hoping that time would reform her. But she had
no patience with him and was grimly determined to end
what she considered to be his impractical
spirituality. Failing in all of her other devilish
devices, she set about to burn all his books, and
consequently set fire to their house as well. At this
the yogi drew near to his wife and said, “Dear lady, I
love you more than ever. You have been God-sent to me.
All this while you have taught me to be patient. Now
you have healed my last infirmity, love for and
attachment to books and a home.” Who or what can
disturb the trained and tranquil mind of a real yogi?

Once a person, married or unmarried, starts living
like a yogi then it would mean he is living a
self-realized person’s life, else not.

Ashanka.

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What is the source of man’s thoughts?

The power of thought, for good or ill, derives from
the thought-essence of the universe.  In manifesting
creation, God first projects it as thought-patterns,
the finest form of creative vibration, which condenses
into forms of astral light and then into grosser
atomic structures.  Remove the primal thought of God
and creation dissolves.

Man’s thoughts are a microcosmic borrowing from God’s
thought power and so have the ability, even when
undeveloped, to affect significantly his own health,
happiness, and success and, when strongly reinforced
by kindred thoughts of others, the world in which he
lives.  The thought-patterns implanted in creation by
God are thus affected harmoniously or inharmoniously
by the thoughts of mankind.

(The above is an extract from Sri Parmahansa
Yogananda’s book “Man’s eternal quest”).

Ashanka.



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Why are people born with inequalities?  Some are born
rich others poor, some are born with a good physic
while some physically handicapped or with some other
problems and so on.

One good answer to the above question is found in Sri
Parmahansa Yogananda’s book “Man’s eternal quest” as
follows:


The doctrine of reincarnation provides the only
plausible explanation for the seeming injustices in
inequalities among men – all of whom are God’s beloved
children.

The soul, all-perfect and ever-perfect, is compelled
by the law of evolution to incarnate repeatedly in
progressively higher lives – retarded by wrong actions
and desires and accelerated by spiritual endeavors –
until Self-realization and God-union are attained.
Having then transcended the Lord’s delusion, the soul
is forever freed.  “Their thoughts immersed in That
(Spirit), their souls one with Spirit, their sole
allegiances and devotion given to Spirit, their beings
purified from poisonous delusion by the antidote of
wisdom – such men reach the state of nonreturn”.
(Bhagavad Gita).

In the Bible it is similarly written: “Him that
overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my
God, and he shall go no more out”.  A soul, who
returns to earth after attaining liberation,
incarnates of his won free will as a master, to help
liberate others.  Such voluntary returns are called
vyutthana, reversion to earthly life after maya has
ceased to blind.  Such incarnations are rate in any
age.

Ashanka.

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Dear friends,

The literal meaning of the word ‘Yoga’ is union.  A
yogi is one who does the yoga of communing with God.
Many people are of the opinion that to be a yogi one
has to live a monastic life as the monks do.  This is
not true.  Even the most ordinary person having a
family and living a routine life can be a yogi.  The
following paragraphs give an idea about ‘yogis’.

A swami is a monk by virtue of his connection with the
venerable Order, is not always a yogi.  Anyone who
practices a scientific technique for divine
realization is a yogi.  He may be either married or
unmarried, either a man of worldly responsibilities or
one of formal religious ties.

A swami may conceivably follow only the path of dry
reasoning, of cold renunciation; but a yogi engages
himself in a definite, step-by-step procedure by which
the body and mind are disciplined and the soul
gradually liberated.  Taking nothing for granted on
emotional grounds or by faith, a yogi practices a
thoroughly tested series of spiritual exercises that
were first mapped out by the ancient rishis (sages).

(from Paramahansa Yogananda's 'Autobiography of a
Yogi')

Ashanka.




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Extract from reply to a seeker

Your question was, ‘Saints and Swamis of various
monasteries live with restrictions, bind them with
rituals, holy hymns, prayers, etc.; are these not more
conducive to gaining enlightenment or self realization
rather than doing anything without restrictions?’

Let me reply to your query in different ways.

Explanation 1: There is no harm in living under
restrictions.  We all live with restrictions.  A Swami
is bound by the restriction of not touching a female,
while I’m bound by restriction of not molesting a
female.  A Swami is bound by wearing only saffron
color dress, while wearing some dress and not going
around naked bind me.  Thus ‘Swami’ or ‘no Swami’ both
are bound.  So, the point under debate is not
‘restriction’ but ‘whether the restriction can be
dropped when needed?’  If a Swami can drop the
restriction when required then he is not under the
bondage of that restriction.

I’ve a story to explain this point to you.  Buddhist
monks are under vow of not touching females. Once two
Buddhist monks were traveling through several villages
on foot.  They were passing from a deserted place when
they saw a small girl sitting by the roadside and
crying.  Nobody was to be seen far and near.  They
talked to the girl and learnt that she was traveling
from a nearby village to her village with a big group.
  She was lost and left behind.  It was getting dark
and she was very scared.  The monks asked her to walk
with them as they were proceeding towards that girl’s
village.  But the girl said that her legs were badly
paining and she couldn’t walk anymore.

The monks were bound by their vow of not touching any
female so how could they carry her.  The monks looked
at each other and thought for a while.  Finally one
monk picked up the little girl and put her on his
shoulder and started walking.  The other monk was
shocked to see that his fellow monk broke his vow.
However, they didn’t discuss anything.  When the
little girl’s village came the monk dropped her off
his shoulder and proceeded on his journey with the
other monk.

The other monk was very disturbed by what happened and
couldn’t keep it to him.  When they reached their
monastery he complained to the head monk about the
fellow monk’s breaking of vow.  After hearing all that
happened the head monk asked this complaining monk,
‘Did the other monk drop off the little girl when her
village came?’
‘Yes’ replied the monk.
‘Then why are you still carrying her on your
shoulder?’ asked the head monk.

This is a very interesting story that teaches us that
restrictions are good only till the time we can live
within it.  But whenever a need arises to break such
restrictions, they should be immediately broken.

Similarly, let the Swamis follow hundreds of
restrictions.  They should know when to come out of
them. If they can break their vows and come out of
restrictions whenever it’s required then they are not
under any bondage.

Explanation 2:  What’s the significance of living
under various restrictions (like the Swamis), singing
holy hymns, performing rituals, etc.?  Are these going
to give enlightenment or self realization?

The answer is ‘No’.  Self realization comes only
through wisdom.  But there is significance about
following restrictions and performing rituals.  This
is nicely explained in ‘The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna’
with a beautiful example.

When we plant a sapling we put a fence around it so
that cattle will not eat it or nobody would
accidentally crush it under one’s feet.  But when the
plant starts growing into a large tree, the fence
should be removed and taken away.  If the fence is not
removed in time then it might even hinder in the
growth of the tree.  The trunk of the tree may even
get trapped within the fence.  Moreover, after the
sapling turns into a big tree neither can cattle eat
it up fully nor can people crush it under their feet
accidentally.

Similarly, when an aspirant begins its journey on
spiritual path he needs a fence of restrictions and
rituals to keep his mind within that fence and not
allowing it to wander away.  But, after a while the
aspirant should become spiritually strong enough to
live without the fence.  If at right time the aspirant
doesn’t remove the fence of restrictions and rituals
from his way then the same fence may become an
obstacle in his spiritual path of progress.

Enlightenment can be gained only by way of wisdom and
nothing else.  Remember that Siddharth (then Gautama
Buddha) was just a human being like us.  He was
neither a brahamachari nor a swami.  He was a prince,
married and also had a son (named Rahul).  To get
enlightenment he neither sang holy hymns in front of
status nor did he do millions of worth of charity.
All he did was ‘thinking’.  He just sat in meditation
and asked himself thousands of questions and he
himself answered them.  He didn’t even have a Guru.

The pure consciousness that was Buddha is the same
pure consciousness that you and I are.  So, if Buddha
didn’t need any restrictions and rituals to gain
enlightenment then why should you, me, or any swami or
maharaj need?

So, with the above two explanations you might have
gained an insight into the significance of
restrictions and rituals.

Ashanka




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Extract from reply to a seeker


Question – There is no doubt God is in everything from
microbe to the highest individual as they are all born
out of same consciousness.  Then why there are
murderers and terrorists?  I am not asking it on
materialistic plane but on the spiritual plane.

Answer – Let me attempt to reply in two ways, i.e.
from a higher plane and a lower plane.

If you are looking from a higher plane then you will
learn that there are two things – Nitya and Lila.
Nitya is what is real, which is pure consciousness.
Where as Lila is the unreal drama that’s happening in
the world.  If you go to see a drama, for 3 hours you
will see various characters like king, thieves,
priests, servants, etc. dressed in their characters
and playing their part of roles.  At the end of the
drama all come together and salute the audience with a
sweet smile.  That time you will not see the anger of
a king on the king’s face nor any cunningness on the
thief’s face.  Similarly, this world is a great stage
where Lila is going on.  There are murderers,
terrorists, generous people, good and fake priests,
honest and dishonest professionals, etc.  When this
world will come to an end, all these characters will
stand together smiling at each other and then all will
dissolve back into pure consciousness.

You are no different but just one character in this
Lila. If you thoroughly understand this then you will
find the same consciousness in a murderer and a
terrorist that is also in you and me and everyone
else.

Now let us look at the same question and try to answer
at a lower plane.  All these unreal happenings are a
vicious cycle of Maya.  Cycle of action and reaction.
Cycle of doing Karma and fructification of that Karma.
  Cycle of cause and effect.  People will do Karma and
when that karma fructifies, these people will enjoy
the fruits of their past good karma and suffer the
fruits of their bad karma.  A murderer kills an
innocent man.  The family of the deceased will suffer,
which is due to their (surviving family members) past
bad karma.  While the murderer has now done a bad
karma so he will suffer its fruits in future.  Thus,
the cycle will go on and on till the universe
dissolves.

In the above example, there was a man, his family and
his killer.  Because the family had done some bad
karma in the past, they had to suffer.  To bring them
suffering the man had to be killed.  To kill the man a
murderer was needed.  But as soon as the murderer
committed the murder he accrued a bad karma and thus
to punish him we will need another character.  Who
when punishes this murderer and then himself accrue
bad karma and then we will need yet another character
to punish that guy.  And thus the cycle will keep
going.

For this cycle to go on, there were thousands of
battles, wars, world wars, murders, terrorist attacks
and so on.  There will be many, many more such
incidences and these will never end.  The Lila will
keep going.

We need not worry about it because we cannot stop
this.  Even Avatars came on earth several times but
never tried to stop this Lila because this cannot be
stopped. (Like the Sun cannot stop burning and the
World cannot stop spinning).  It has to be the way it
is.  Having understood this, we need to gain wisdom
and keep ourselves out of it.  And share this
knowledge with those who are genuinely interested in
Vedanta.  In one life or the other all of us will
understand this truth and finally one day each one
will complete the cycles of births and deaths.

Ashanka



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Is it right on someone’s part to call oneself God?

Extract from reply to a seeker

One of the maha vakyas you must have come across
several times is ‘Brahman Satya Jagad Mithya’, which
means only Brahman is real and everything else is
unreal.  When you look at yourself and around,
everything from your body to this entire universe is
as unreal as your dreams.  When a person sees a bad
dream his body starts sweating, even if he were
sleeping in an air-conditioned room.  During that
dream everything seems to be real to him and his body
starts responding to the dream.  Similarly, when we
wake up from sleep and come out of dream, we don’t get
into any real world but another dream world.
Everything we think as real is another long dream.
Thus, there is a ‘Consciousness SELF’, a ‘Dreaming
SELF’ and a ‘Dream SELF’.  For ‘Dreaming SELF’ the
‘Dream SELF’ is just a dream.  While for
‘Consciousness SELF’ the ‘Dreaming SELF’ is just a
dream.

We are all hallucinating everything, including our own
body.  When a person goes to a psychiatrist and says
that he sees dead people walking around (ghosts) the
psychiatrist explains him that seeing something or
somebody who doesn’t exist is hallucination.  When a
handful of people see things that do not exist, we say
that they are hallucination.  But when all of us
hallucinate things around us, we don’t realize it.
But if somebody from outer space comes and tell us
that he can’t see anything on the sky that we call
‘Sun’ then we will realize that seven billion people
on earth are hallucinating something call ‘Sun’.  Then
our situation would be like the person who sweats in
his dream though sleeping in air-conditioned room.
When we walk in the street we sweat and think that
it’s because of the sun, but actually we just
hallucinate the sun and start sweating.  If this is
understood then you will understand that there is
nothing other than pure consciousness (Brahman),
everything is the hallucination of this pure
consciousness.

So, to summarize, in the beginning there was just
consciousness.  That consciousness by its maya shakti
manifested into a cosmic mind.  This cosmic mind
started thinking about millions of universes and
everything within.  We are all part of that illusion.
The biggest secret of creation is that there is no
creation.  There was nothing (neither matter nor
energy, neither atom nor atman) in the beginning nor
is there anything today and nothing will ever be
there.  It’s only pure consciousness (which is neither
exactly matter nor energy), which was there, is now
and will always be.

When a person is in deep sleep or deep meditation, he
experiences nothing but that pure self, pure
consciousness.  That’s the only time when he goes
beyond time, space and causation.  As soon as he is
out of deep sleep or deep meditation, he is back to
the imaginary and illusory world.  If you do lot of
study on this then you will realize that there is
nothing, no time and no space.  Thus, in reality
neither there was ever any Jesus, nor Krishna, nor
Ramakrishna, nor you or I.  Like Sri Ramakrishna said
to remove one thorn from your foot, use another thorn
and when the thorn is removed then throw both the
thorns away.  Similarly, try to understand Christ by
using your understanding of Ramakrishna, then leave
aside both the avatars and understand that in this
illusory jagad, neither Christ was there nor
Ramakrishna and so much so, you or me are also not.

Meditate and know that you are just pure
consciousness.  The consciousness in you is the same
as in the lowest of spices and highest.  Thus, each
one of us being the same consciousness, we are all
Gods.  All is Brahman.  There is absolutely nothing
wrong in anyone’s claiming that s/he is a God.  But
just wait until you realize.  Christ, Rama, Krishna,
Ramakrishna, et al realized this truth and claimed
that they are God.  Ramakrishna, throughout his life
prayed to Mother Kali.  Finally realized that the
consciousness in him was the same consciousness in
Kali and he said that ‘I and my mother are one’.
Christ told the world, ‘I and my father in heaven are
one’.  Thus, you see, at the end a realized person
realizes that he is God.  We are all Gods but we just
have to realize it.  That’s Self-Realization.

Ashanka



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Extract from reply to a seeker


Now I will comment on what Swamiji and you mentioned
on Hindutva, “At any point of time every Hindu has to
start renunciation, otherwise he is not a Hindu”.

After gaining so much knowledge of Vedanta do you
still consider yourself to be a ‘Hindu’?  The moment
one considers oneself to be a Hindu; he differentiates
himself from other religions.  After gaining knowledge
of Vedanta, I feel that one realizes that all
religions are same.  In the beginning there were no
two or many religions.  Everything was just one.  In
the beginning there was just ‘Consciousness’, which
manifested into this universe and everything in this
universe.  There was no ‘Hindu consciousness’ and
‘Muslim consciousness’.  The original Bible, Gita,
Koran, etc. said everything absolutely same thing.
Example: Gita says ‘Brahma Satya Jagad Mithya’ and
Koran says ‘La ilaha illa llah’.  But both have same
meaning, which is ‘ultimately there is no being or
reality other than the absolute being or the absolute
reality’.  If you read scriptures of any two religion
and if you find any difference then know it for sure
that people have manipulated it and it was not
different in the beginning.  You know that we have
freedom of press, which means that we can print
anything we want.  So today if I manipulate some pages
of Gita and circulate in the market, whoever reads it
would believe such and such thing is said in Gita but
in reality that would be my own thoughts and not
original Gita’s.  That’s what has happened over last
few centuries and hence we fight on religion.  The
essence and core of all religion is absolutely the
same.  Advaita. Non-dualism.

In short, I feel that you should forget that you are a
Hindu.  You are not a Hindu, you are not a body, you
are not a mind, you are not an Indian, and you are
nothing but pure Consciousness.  And consciousness has
no religion.  So let us interpret Swamiji’s statement
as follows – ‘At some point of time every human should
start renunciation, otherwise he or she is not a human
being’.

Ashanka



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Extract from reply to a seeker

The ultimate objective of human life is to realize God
(knowing what is God-Realization or Self-Realization).
  The applause that Swamiji got in the Parliament of
Religion was a post achievement of realizing God.  One
factor in that process for Swamiji was his maintaining
of brahmacharaya, which I fully agree.  But, Swamiji
himself taught us that various paths lead to same
goal.  You may achieve that goal (God Realization) by
any yoga – jnan, bhakti, karma or raja.  Thus, a man
strictly following karma yoga will also realize God
and in that case he need not be a brahamachari.

We are students of Swamiji’s teachings.  Swamiji
himself learnt a lot from Upanisads.  In the last
one-century thousands of Vedanta books were written by
swamis of several missions.  However, during the time
of Swamiji and before that people had Gita, Upanisads
and Brahama Sutra to understand Vedanta.  And do you
know who wrote these Upanisads?  Sages, who were
married and had families, wrote these Upanisads.  They
lived in forests and knew to meditate.  In deep
meditation they talked with Brahma and Brahma talked
about the Realities to these sages.  These realities
were passed on in the names of Upanisads from
generation to generation.  Mostly the names of these
Upanisads were the titles (names) of those sages.
Thus the Upanisads’ names are Brhadaranyaka,
Taittiriya, Maitrayani, Mandukya, etc.  So, to cut it
short, I just believe that marriage cannot hinder
reaching the goal of God Realization.  There are many
ways of reaching God and Brahmacharya is just one of
them.  But that doesn’t mean that other paths are not
fruitful.

Ashanka



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Extract from reply to a seeker

It gives me immense pleasure to know that you are a
strict follower of Swamiji’s teachings.  But, I wish
to bring to your notice one thing I learnt from my
study of Vedanta.  We cannot just go by ‘the Letters
of Vedanta’; we need to go by ‘the Spirit of Vedanta’.
  Vedanta teaches us ‘father and mother are
representatives of God, but a Guru is greater than
God.  While parents give us physical birth, a guru
gives us a second birth, which is spiritual birth’.
Now if you go by these ‘Letters’ then you might find a
lot of complexities in life.  You know, in today’s
world, 9 out of 10 gurus are pseudo gurus.  Thousands
of people have such fake gurus.  If all of them start
treating these fake gurus as greater than God then you
can imagine what a place this world will become.

It is definitely a good samskara to obey parents.
However, every individual has its own mind and
intellect to think as to what are good and bad.
Parents may be wrong at times.  A child cannot blindly
obey its parents to make them happy.  Best example is
that of mother Kaikai and son Bharat of Ramayana.
Bharat had a great samskara and respect for his
mother.  However, he didn’t obey his mother when she
sent Rama to forest and asked his son Bharata to
become the king.  Bharata disobeyed his mother and
declined her wish.  Bharata became a great character
of Ramayana by this act of his.  You may ask yourself
if Bharat did anything wrong by not obeying her
mother.  Dear friend, finally you have to take your
decision.  Have great respect for your parents but do
the ‘Right’ thing and not just the thing your parents
say.  It is written in ‘The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna’
that there is nothing wrong to be with a family.  But
if family become an impediment to your spiritual life
than you will have to make a choice between the two.

Swamiji did say ‘Standing on a high pedestal and
contributing something to the poor, you do no favor to
mankind.  The world is sufficient enough to take its
own care’.  Once again I would request you to read
between the lines.  If we strictly go by ‘mere words’
then one might say that we need not even spread the
knowledge of Vedanta because the world can take care
of itself and is not at the mercy of us to learn
Vedanta from you and me.  Dear friend, it’s easy to
say that world will take care of itself but in
practical world somebody has to do something.  It’s a
great philosophy that if a child has come to world
then it will learn how to live but still parents have
to slog day and night after it to raise the child.
Philosophy is good in its place but in practice things
are quite different.

One of the most important characters of a person is
‘Gratitude’.  A person without gratitude is not a
human at all.  Just imagine a friend of yours, who was
badly in need of thousand rupees.  About ten people he
approached denied helping. Finally you give him the
money.  Instead of thanking you if he said to you
‘friend, don’t think that by giving thousand rupees
you did a favor to me.  The world is sufficient enough
to take care of itself.  Had you not helped me
somebody else would have helped’.  How would you feel
from such thanklessness?

You know that Swamiji is my ideal too and my entire
life is indebted to his inspiration.  But I can’t go
by the ‘Letters of Vedanta’.  It needs a lot of
interpretation.  Swamis of Sri Ramakrishna mission and
various missions live on the donations of public.
Vedanta does teach them to be thankful to those
donors.  Donors need Swamis in the world to spread
peace and Swamis need donors to survive.  Thus,
everyone needs some others and we should all be
thankful to each other and live peacefully.

Ashanka



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Greetings,

Extract from reply to a seeker

You have mentioned at several places that you are not doing anything
but it is `He' who is doing.  But, my friend, remember that there is
a higher meaning to this thought as well.  Even a thief would say
that he doesn't steal anything, it's God stealing through him and a
terrorist will say that he doesn't do any harm to the world, it's
God doing all that through him.  That way in this world, nobody is
doing any good or bad, everything is done by God and we simply
reward or punish people.  Which is not true, you know that.  The
fact is that every individual soul is born with a `Free Will', which
cannot be taken away from him, even by God.  Whatever a person DOES,
he does it by his `Free Will' and whatever HAPPENS in his life is by
the `Effect of his Karmas'.  Here's an example to make the point
clear – I push a child from a balcony of third floor, that's
a `doing' and I did that by my Free Will.  Whereas, I'm standing in
the balcony with a child in my arm and accidentally the child falls
from my hand, that's a `happening' in my life and that bad happened
because I did some bad karma in the past.  [In the first example I
threw the child out of my free will, but that `act' being bad became
a bad karma and as a result in future `the effect or fruits of this
bad karma' will bring a bad `happening' in my life.  This cycle Free
Will – Karma – Effect of Karma goes on until a person gains Self-
Realization and goes out of the realm of karma.

You say that you are earning and want to earn more to serve
mankind.  Many people believe so and I did so for several years.
But the fact is that we are not very honest in making this
statement.  Did you ever work out the percentage of your income that
goes towards the poor?  I donate every month but the truth is that
it's not even 5% of my income.  By donating we get a satisfaction of
doing virtue (punya) but does that mean the percentage is
immaterial?  If so then why don't we donate just one rupee and feel
great about it.  I read in one Islamic book that we should donate at
least one-fourth of our income to earn virtue.  But, we spend most
of our income to please our own family members and hoarding for
future.  So, my dear friend, unless you give away a real big portion
of your income in charity, please don't think that you are living
for others.  `Others' don't include our friends and families.
Others just mean those who you don't know personally.

Ashanka

Extract from a letter...

You may read a book on Vedanta and give up eating
non-vegetarian food.  But will you give up using all
products made out of leather – shoes, wallet, belt,
sofa, etc.?  You may not like to cut down a tree
because that also has life.  But thousands of trees
are felled everyday and furniture is made, which you
use.  Can you give up using every single furniture and
item made of wood?  If you go to a restaurant or some
place will you sit on floor to avoid using furniture?
When you are sick you may have medicine that was made
from cod liver oil or any oil from fish.  (5 years I
worked in pharmaceutical company and know that pig’s
fat is used to make the capsule covers).  Will you
stop having soft capsules for the rest of your life?
And there are so many such things that we can’t give
up just by giving up non-veg eating, hating the
killing of trees, etc.  When I asked about it to my
Guru, he told me that we can’t do much about such
things and we have to go through all these karmas,
unless we want to become a wandering monk.

I don’t know about you my friend but I am quite clear
that I’m not renouncing anything.  When right time
will come, everything will renounce me.  But till that
time I want to understand the essence of Vedanta and
find out ‘The Reality’.  The reality by knowing which
everything else will be known.  I’m still trying to
figure out what exactly will enlighten me about ‘The
Reality’ but I am at least clear that my couple of
renunciation will not take me to my goal.  Had it been
so simple then all the swamis would have got
enlightenment by now.

Ashanka





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Dear friends,

There are many ways of looking into the meaning of
Self-Realization.  There is one belief that no body
can realize the self because all of us are already
Self-Realized.  Even as a dead man cannot be killed a
self realized person couldn’t attain self-realization
again.  Then what is this big hype about
Self-Realization?

The whole thing about Self-Realization is a two-step
process – (a) One’s knowing that one is a self
realized person and then (b) Improving one’s way of
living.

Some critics argue that ‘knowing that one is a
self-realized person’ is just another way of putting
‘Realizing the self or attaining self-realization’.
But that’s not very true and this can be explained by
the following example.

Assume that you were a final year medical student.
You came out of examination hall at 6 p.m. on 30th
June after completing your last paper.  Your papers
were checked and results were prepared on 15th
September by university.  Your results were posted by
ordinary mail to your home address on 30th September.
It arrived at your home on 5th October evening while
you were traveling.  Your father opened the mail and
learnt that you have passed and become a doctor.
However, you couldn’t be contacted that night.  Next
day morning i.e. 6th October you came home and heard
the good news and checked your results yourself.  Now
can you tell me when did you become doctor? At 6 p.m.
on 30/6, on 15/9, on 5/10 or on 6/10?  Remember that
your role of preparing for the exams and writing the
papers was done by 6 p.m. on 30/6.  After that until
6th October you had no contribution to your becoming a
doctor.  On 15th September you were a doctor on
records of the university.  But all these days you
were not aware that you were already a doctor!  But
just because you were not aware that you have become a
doctor doesn’t mean that you were not a doctor.
Similarly, just by our not knowing that we are
self-realized people doesn’t mean that we are not
self-realized.  We are all self-realized just we need
to know that.

Now let’s elaborate on the second step of self
realization – “Improving one’s way of living”

Continuing with the above example, what happens if
your routine after coming to know that you have become
a doctor remains the same as before?  If you again
pick up your same old medical books, go to library and
study there day after day like in your college days
then how much does your becoming a doctor matter? It
makes a difference only if you pursue advanced study,
research or practice medicines.  Which means that you
change your routine.  Similarly, having come to know
that you are a self-realized person you should change
your way of living for better.  You might have been a
loud voice, short tempered, egoistic person before;
you need to change to soft-spoken, tranquil,
non-egoist person.  Of course this is just the
improvement in the beginning and there would be much
more to improve.

When we say ‘we’ we are either talking about our body
or about our soul.  Now obviously body will not
realize the self and soul cannot realize the self
since soul is changeless, what undergoes change is the
body.  Thus we all are already self realized and the
entire process of self-realization is to know that
fact and improve our living.

In the words of Paramahansa Yogananda,
“Self-realization is the knowing – in body, mind and
soul – that we are one with the omnipresence of God;
that we do not have to pray that it come to us, that
we are not merely near it at all times, but that God’s
omnipresence is our omnipresence; that we are just as
much a part of Him now as we ever will be.  All we
have to do is improve our knowing”.

Om Krim Kali,
Ashanka.

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